In the United States, government labs, including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute, dominate the survey, with five positions among the top 15. Like the government labs, the top-rated Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia provides funding and infrastructure that allow postdocs to focus on their PCRs and pipettes.

Outside the United States, the Universities of Alberta and Liverpool earned the most admiration from their postdoctoral researchers. At Liverpool, a researcher attributed its second-place showing to its recent high ratings from the UK government. At Alberta, a respondent said that the newly opened postdoc office helped push the school to the top spot. "This is a university with great support to postdocs, even though there are differences in postdoc support according to the specific program," says Carlos Flores-Mir at the University of Alberta. "The postdoctoral position I am taking is brand new, and I have all the support I need. There is a commitment to maintain this position in the future."

These comments show that postdocs look beyond working with microscopes and assays: Relations with other scientists attracted more responses in the survey than did scientific issues. "The quality of my postdoctoral colleagues here at Harvard is beyond what I could have hoped or expected," says Don Kirkpatrick, who works at the medical school. "Additionally, the ability to collaborate with the 'world's expert' in nearly every field provides immense opportunity."